SPOKANE -- Supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement marched across Downtown Spokane Saturday. Protesters said their work is far from being done. They did not see their largest turnout but they believe they are developing a following that is likely outlasting any other movement to hit the streets in the Spokane area.

Their path was similar to previous protests. They made stops outside local offices of the country's largest banks.

"People are becoming aware. They are seeing that government is controlled by corporations and government isn't doing anything to change the way things are run," said Occupy Spokane Erik Phillips.

The message remains the same. But members of the group believe they are connecting with more of their fellow citizens each week by maintaining a consistent presence downtown.

"We've got wonderful people that have a great sense of community. It's not about socialism, it's about protecting our families, protecting our friends, and protecting the American future," said Michael Lyons.

People marching said this movement is outlasting previous protests because so many can relate to their anger at the government and corporations.

Occupy Spokane said they will come together to march through downtown again next Saturday starting at noon.

Washington News

"Neither of our "power team" has signed onto the "Three State Solution" for ERA ratification. Please give them call and encourage them to cosponsor Senate Joint Resolution 15, "Remove the ratification deadline from the Equal Rights Amendment." - Walt Kloefkorn, PDA Washington
A normally reserved Sen. Maria Cantwell was exchanging bear hugs with fishermen in Seattle on Friday, hours after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved to stop a mammoth proposed mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay, on grounds it would threaten the world’s greatest salmon fishery.
Cantwell took the fishing industry’s cause,...

In the Salon article The matter with Kansas now: The Tea Party, the 1 percent and delusional Democrats, Thomas Frank writes:
It wasn’t until several years later that I began to understand what a fascinating, upside-down extravaganza it was to see the right eat its way through the good sense of the nation.
While the above quote is a good description, I think Frank is a little off the mark with this essay, as he was with “What’s the Matter With Kansas.” (His best book is “The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Ruined Government,...

Machinists at Boeing resoundingly voted down mid-contract concessions yesterday and then booed the union leaders who had pushed the proposal on a shocked membership.
Their contract doesn’t expire until 2016, but the company is threatening to move production of the huge new 777X aircraft out of Washington state to avoid the union.
Boeing even promised $10,000 apiece upon approval, but the workers didn’t take the bait, opposing the scheme by 67 percent.
A line snaked around the union building in Everett as workers waited to vote on a proposal they’d only learned was...

Seattle City Council candidate Kshama Sawant, a “Socialist Alternative” insurgent, has unseated four-term incumbent Richard Conlin, with the latest batch of mail-in ballots nearly tripling Sawant’s lead to 1,148 votes.
A year ago, Sawant was running against the Legislature’s most powerful Democrat, House Speaker Frank Chopp, charging that the “Democratic Party-majority government” had slashed billions from education programs while bestowing tax exemptions on “rich corporations.”
On Thursday evening, however, the victorious “working class activist” Sawant was headed for a 36th District Democratic fundraiser sponsored by State Sen. Jeanne Kohn-Welles. Sawant’s tireless journalist...

Voters in left-leaning Seattle, where police recently handed out snacks at a large marijuana festival and politicians often try to out-liberal each other, are close to electing a Socialist candidate to the City Council. Following the latest ballot count Tuesday night, Kshama Sawant had a 402-vote lead over 16-year incumbent Richard Conlin. Given Washington state's mail-in voting system, a winner won't be named for days or even weeks after the Nov. 4 election.
Still, the strong showing by Sawant, a college economics professor and prominent figure in Seattle's Occupy Wall Street...

Spokane City Councilman Jon Snyder and President of Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington Nick Beamer announced that the Sequestration cuts passed by Congress are poised to have a negative effect for area seniors who depend on the services ALTCEW provides.
For the five-county area served by Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington (ALTCEW), Older Americans Act funding will be cut by $153,523 due to sequestration.
At a recent meeting of the ALTCEW Governing Board, chaired by Snyder, action was taken to provide supplemental funding to reduce the...

An arbitrator said that a picket line of retired longshore union workers that closed a key Port of Tacoma container terminal early Tuesday was not allowed under the provisions of the longshore contract, according to the group that was the subject of the protest.
The Washington United Terminal was reopened Tuesday afternoon after the retirees removed pickets from the facility on Port of Tacoma Road.
The pickets were trying to force action on their complaints regarding the Pacific Maritime Association’s alleged failure to pay retiree medical bills. The PMA represents waterfront employers...

Following report of leaks, nuclear safety board finds dangerous hydrogen build up in waste holding tanks
Tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which sits on the Columbia River in Benton County, Washington face dangerous risk of hydrogen build up which could trigger an explosion of radioactive materials, a nuclear safety board announced on Monday.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board expressed these concerns in a briefing letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who sought the board's review ahead of next week's confirmation hearing...

Here is the list of four scorecards on which the rank is based:
Washington Conservation Voters Legislative Scorecard 2011-2012
Washington State Labor Council 2012 SENATE Voting Record
Facing Race: 2012 Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity
2012 Washington Conservative Union Ratings of the State Senate
The combined score is based on the four component scores and the formula:
Combined Score = labor_lifetime + conservation_lifetime + racial_justice - conservative.
Each component score is from 0 to 100. The combined scores are shown below, ordered from highest to lowest. The raw component data is further below.
Democrats are shown in...

Representative Jim McDermott talks about deficit and our national priorities at the House Budget Committee Markup of the Paul Ryan Budget.
Details can be found here:
Progressive Caucus Leaders Release the Back to Work Budget to Create 7 Million Jobs

On Feb 15 a majority of House Democrats released a letter:
Majority of House Democrats Call on President Obama to Reject Benefit Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security Benefits.
But the only Washington State representative who has signed the above letter is Rep. Jim McDermott. Democratic Representatives Smith, DelBene, Larsen, Kilmer, and Heck haven’t signed on.
Moreover, Ivan Weiss reports that he asked newly elected 1st CD Rep. Suzan DelBene whether she would pledge not to support the “chained CPI” plan. She refused to make that pledge.
Walter Kloefkorn, of PDA, reports...

Earlier this month, teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington, voted unanimously to stop administering a widely used standardized test, calling them wasteful and unfairly used to grade their performance. They are now facing threats of 10-day suspension without pay if they continue their boycott. We go to Seattle to speak with two guests: Jesse Hagopian, a high school history teacher and union representative at Garfield High School who has refused to administer the MAP standardized test, and Wayne Au, a ...

A Single Payer Health Care bill has been introduced in the Washington State 2013 Legislature. The bill number is House Bill (HB) 1085. The legislation is called the Washington Health Security Trust (WHST). The original WHST proposal was written by members of Health Care for All – Washington, http://www.healthcareforallwa.org/. This proposal has been revised in HB 1085 to be compliant to the Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which makes WHST ready for a request to the Federal Government for use as a health care plan in Washington State in 2017.
A hearing on...

From our friends at Health Care for All and Walter Kloefkorn 30 Jan 2013 Hits:1362 Washington

In a guest PubliCola op/ed, former lefty state Rep. Brendan Williams says the GOP coup was inevitable, but notes that there's a silver lining.
In the fable of the scorpion and the frog, a frog (or tortoise) overcomes its misgivings and agrees to ferry a scorpion across a river after the scorpion persuasively notes that stinging the frog would cause both to sink and drown. Midway across, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, and, as they sink, the frog asks why. The scorpion’s response is...

If you want a nice, crystal-clear example of why it's so hard to elect strong, pro-labor progressives to Congress who fight for working families, look no further than the race in Washington's new 1st congressional district. It's a crowded field, and among them you can identify three strong, pro-labor progressives who have excellent track records when it comes to working families: Laura Ruderman, Steve Hobbs, and our own favorite, Darcy Burner.
So who have the local unions (including the Washington State Labor Council,...

Occupy Olympia (WA) and the Alliance for Global Justice are hosting an Occupy Solidarity Social Forum Feb. 18-19 in the Washington state capital city. The self-organized, social forum-type gathering is…

Rep. Kevin Van De Wege (D-Sequim, Majority State Whip) - Van De Wege made the following statement to the organization "Fuse Washington" on his resignation from ALEC:

“I have decided to resign my membership from ALEC, effective April 11, 2012. As a legislator, my job is to represent the interests of all my constituents, not just those whose views align perfectly with mine. I have been a member of ALEC since I was first elected to the Legislature, and my very-limited participation enabled me to learn more about the organization’s legislative agenda and its stance on issues. I thought this insider’s view would help me to better understand those who do not agree with me politically, and in many ways, it has. However, my membership status is increasingly becoming a divisive issue this year, and I prefer to put my time and energy into efforts that unite our district rather than divide it.”[29]

Rep. Troy Kelley (D-28) - Kelley said he did attend one meeting but told Washington's Newsstand News that he does not participate in ALEC and is not a member.[30]

Rep. Brian Hatfield (D-19) - Hatfield announced in April 2012 that he has not renewed his ALEC membership and has no plans to attend upcoming ALEC meetings.[31]